


Adapt or Die

by seriouslynoclue



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:27:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25642054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seriouslynoclue/pseuds/seriouslynoclue
Summary: Sousa could see and hear everything that was being done to Daisy through the hole in the wall boards and it probably killed him to have to just sit and wait it out. This is an extended look into 7x06, Adapt or Die, looking into all the movements of Daisy and Sousa's captivity that we got to see, and the moments we didn't
Comments: 5
Kudos: 40





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello hello, all. I have not written a fic in years, but I have time on my hands stuck at home in the pandemic so hey why not write some shit. Have I not done creative writing in five years? Yeah. Is this great stuff? Probably not but its also probably just good enough. This is the fic nobody asked for, but everyone needs. The extended version of Sousa and Daisy's captivity together in 7x06. Like and comment! The first two chapters are done, and the third and probably fourth will coming soon (unless this totally flubs).

Daniel Sousa blinked a few times as he awoke. He found it hard to keep his eyes open, his lids seeming to work against him with ever blink. With some concentration and some deep breaths, he managed to keep them open and focus on his surroundings more clearly. He was lying down on his side, his hands were cuffed, and he felt like he had been run down by a tank. He was looking at a wood planked wall and there was straw covering the floor. He came to the conclusion he was in a barn, but for what purpose he had little idea. Initially, he could not remember what led him to be in this place, but soon the fragments of his memory came back to form a clear picture-his heart skipped a beat when he remembered Agent Johnson. Still laying on his side, feeling completely lethargic, he called out her name.

"Agent Johnson?" There was no answer. He groaned as he moved his head, trying to peer over his shoulder to see the rest of the space.

"Daisy?" He strained to say softly. With no answer, and after remaining motionless for a few moments more, he gathered his strength and took a deep breath in and rolled onto his back. Sousa let out a groan as the action made his body hurt more then he thought it would. He tried not to move his head and peered to the left, seeing Daisy out of the corner of his eye. She was tied and motionless, but he called out her name once more, hoping it would wake her.

"Agent Johnson?"

With no answer yet again, he started to become concerned despite knowing that if they had been drugged with the same dosage, it was probably just taking a bigger toll on her smaller body. Still, he could not shake the worry that something more was wrong with her, perhaps they had done something else while he was unconscious. He turned his head to look at her again, trying to check if he could see any injuries or even if she was just simply breathing. The lighting in the barn was dim and the way she was positioned on her side made trying to watch for a rise in fall in her stomach or chest difficult. Sousa could not discern much of anything, positive or negative. He inhaled deeply and rolled onto his side exhaling once he was done, he did the same again as he propped himself up on his forearm- a weird position given his wrists were bound together- and exhaled as he scooched himself up against the wall. Moving his body in such a way made him incredibly dizzy, and he leaned his head back against the wood wall as he waited for things to settle, closing his eyes shut to make the process go a little faster. As the lightheadedness dissipated, he gradually opened his eyes and looked at Daisy. Although he could now tell that she didn't seem to have any injuries, he could not make out a breath pattern which worried him deeply, he, himself noting the twinge of extreme concern that washed over him. Sousa slid against the wall, leaning over towards Daisy and brought his hands towards her neck and wriggled two of his fingers through her hair to her throat.

He let out a deep sigh of relief as he felt her pulse. He kept his fingers there probably longer then he should, but part of him had to be sure that what he was feeling was correct, and another part of him secretly enjoyed the sense of comfort it brought him knowing she was alright. As he pulled his fingers away from her skin, he noted that she felt hot and maybe even a little clammy, a sign of the drugs that were surely in her system. He shook his hand awkwardly as her hair tangled in his handcuffs, but once free he pushed himself back upright and even wiggled a little bit further away, trying to give her a respectful amount of space. He did not want her to wake and think he had been anything but a gentleman. So, Sousa just sat and waited, hoping the effects of the drugs would wear off and Agent Johnson would wake up soon.

Daisy's initial thought was that she was waking up in the middle of the night and wondered what time it was. She contemplated keeping her eyes closed and just drifting back to sleep, but something was not right. Pain was setting in and she could feel something scratchy sticking to her face. Daisy let out a soft groan and struggled to move a little, attempting to rid the discomfort she was feeling, yet it just seemed to make the pain in her head worse, a pain akin to a mix of a hangover from hell and the body aches that lasted for weeks after the time she was shot.

"Good to see you move," She heard a familiar voice say. That is when it dawned on her that she was not coming to in her bed, but surely somewhere much worse.

Sousa was glad that she was finally regaining consciousness but was a little worried about the drug's effects on her, given she seemed to be struggling to wake completely. He too had wrestled with the drug effects, but from his view, she seemed to be having a much harder time. Was it because of the super serum that was in her already?

He watched patiently as Daisy tried to pull herself out of the drug-induced stupor, hoping she would not just give up and drift back off to sleep leaving him alone again.

For Daisy, opening her eyes was a challenge, and lifting her head just slightly off the ground was even harder.  
"My head," Daisy groaned, letting her head plop back down on the wood floor, "I can barely..." she began to say, but couldn't form the rest of the thought. She let out a tired breath and scrunched her eyes shut, trying to focus on anything besides the echoing throbs rattling her skull. As she took a second to focus on her head, she realized the rest of her body felt much of the same- heavy, sore, and somehow distant.

"Feels like there's cement running through my veins," she let out with a grimace.

Despite her eyes still being shut, Daisy could sense Sousa's eyes on her.

Unlike her, he was sitting up but crunched over just slightly to get closer so that his whispers could be better heard. Realizing she wasn't perhaps putting the pieces together quickly, he let out a simple "drugs."

Daisy tried once more to lift her head, this time succeeding more than before, although her head sways despite her trying to keep it still.

Sousa could tell Daisy was struggling and thought that if she perhaps had something to focus on, it would help her come back into focus. While his brain told him that he should probably keep as quiet as possible given their captured status, his heart wanted to help Daisy so he would coach her through this and help her stay awake.

"Haven't been this messed up since the field hospital," she heard Sousa say. His voice sounded almost distant or out of focus, an effect of the drugs she quickly decided. Without much more thought she decided she had to get up and taking a deep breath in, lifted her head, and slid her cuffed hands closer to her chest, propping herself up just slightly. The sudden movement surprised Sousa, as only moments ago she seemed to be losing a battle to the drugs- perhaps she didn't need the coaching after all. Daisy's efforts were not a well-coordinated motion, but it had taken Sousa a few moments longer to do the same after he had awakened, so he was genuinely surprised by her ability to do so. Agent Johnson must be stronger than she looks he thought.

"I want to hea—hear that story when- when I can remember it," Daisy let out in breathy spurts, using the lighthearted banter as a deflection and coping mechanism per usual. She peered up at Sousa, who notably seemed just about as dazed as she was. Wherever they were, they were not doing too great.

Daisy wiggled a bit trying to gauge how incapacitated she was and realized that not only were her hands cuffed together, but her ankles too- realizing this didn't bring her alarm as much as our annoyance- she had been held captive before, she could just add this time to a list.

The cuffs scratched against the floor as she tucked her feet closer and stretched out her arms towards them. She would just quake the cuffs apart and be one step closer to being out of this mess, but as she tried to use her powers all she felt was the rattling of her bones and not vibrations of the metal of the cuffs of anything else. Daisy breathed heavily thinking she just needed to concentrate harder, but as seconds passed without anything happening, and her hands and wrist beginning to ache, she let out a lamented breath and put down her hands.

She hadn't felt such an internal ache in her arms since learning to use her powers. It had been such a long time since she had felt such a feeling, and in combination with not being able to quake something so simple as handcuffs, she became worried. She looked up at Sousa with deep concern in her eyes, "I can't quake."

Sousa looked at her confused and also concerned. He still did not understand how her powers worked, but the fact that she seemed troubled by it made him feel equally worried. He wanted to say something to her to make her feel better, but he did not even know where to begin. He had just met this woman a couple of days ago and knew next to nothing about her other than that she had powers and was a Shield Agent from the future.

Daisy let out a sign of exhaustion and let her head flop back to the floor. Her brain quickly jumped to the last time she was stricken of her powers by the Kree and briefly wondered if the chronicons had done the same again, implanting and inhibitor into her head while she was unconscious. Despite the thought, Daisy couldn't bring herself to move and check behind her ear, not wanting to come to terms with that reality if it was true. Besides, there were other possibilities for why her powers had gone inactive and they all centered around Hydra, a scarily more probable reality.

Frustration began to well up inside her, and she scrunched her face into the straw-covered floor and tried to pull herself up, tired of feeling helpless on the floor. Sousa noticed the change in her demeanor but reasoned that she had every right to be pissed off, he didn't like their situation either.

"Malick's little psycho-"

"Psycho?"

Daisy's words are interrupted by none other than Nathaniel Malick who had entered the room with two other men in suits in tow. The abrupt entry surprised Sousa and Daisy and the light brought into the space through the open door was a harsh adjustment to their eyes.

Daisy had never been in such a perfect 'speak of the devil' situation before, internally chastising herself for speaking this into existence.

Sousa tried to squint to make out the men more clearly, specifically working to focus on the other two knowing already what Nathan looked like. Seeing their captors face to face began to stir resentment inside of both he and Daisy, and he wished he could have just taken them out when they had entered the room.

"That's unfair—and very well timed," Nathan said walking into the room with a confident countenance. "Wow, right as I'm walking in." He walks over to them with an outstretched hand, his demeanor unmatching to their current situation.

"Hi. Nathaniel. Uh, the two of you took me hostage, changed my life," he says with a smile.

Seeing Nathaniel the first time on their previous time jump was a surprise, now it was just annoying. Daisy still couldn't believe that the Chronicoms had decided to save him- a scrawny pink-paisley-wearing guy with a superiority complex? She pushed herself up further, ready to talk to circles around this delusional Hydra kid.

"Yeah, how about you unchain us, and we can hug it out?" Daisy says, looking up at Nathaniel. "And Hydra and Shield can be together at last?" She sits up back against the wall, part of her thinking that the situation maybe wasn't as bad as she thought, it was just Nathan after all.

"Hydra? I look like Hydra to you?" Nathan replies in disbelief. "Take a look at Ron's suit," he says turning and pointing to one of the men in the back of the room, "Guy's here cause he's got mouths to feed, not cause he worships a space octopus."

While Daisy understood every word Nathan was saying, Sousa looked on puzzlingly. Space Octopus worship? Was this the same Nazi Hydra he knew about or was this another weird timeline disturbance?

"No. Religion's not really my thing."

"I don't want to know what your thing is, kid." Sousa decides to interject. He was tired of feeling two steps behind everyone in this new time period.

Nathaniel crouches and tenderly puts a hand on Sousa's outstretched foot, looking him in the eyes. In a mocking caring tone, Nathaniel says kindly, "But it's you, Daniel," tapping his foot in reassurance, "you're my thing," he ends with a debonair and creepy smile.

The smile sets Sousa off and he lunges forward, but weakly so, his chains and the drugs holding him back. Yet it does cause Nathaniel to flinch and rock backward, letting out a small, but genuinely surprised, "whoa." The exertion of energy was a lot for Sousa, and he flops to his side, unable to stay sitting upright any longer. He is deeply annoyed with himself in his inability to do anything to the guy half his size in front of him. He groans as he tries to push himself back up while Nathaniel looks on, still crouched in front of him.

"Danny. You know. I know. Daisy here can move things without touching them. And You? You either fought the Krauts in diapers or you're aging much slower than the other 60-somethings I know."

Daisy had started to catch onto what Nathaniel was putting out, realizing that he thought they both were enhanced and probably wanted to understand and replicate their "powers." It wasn't unreasonable to think that Sousa had aging abilities, given time travel was the actual correct answer. "Yeah, he's not what you think. He's not—"

"You mean he's not an inhuman?" Nathaniel says assertively, standing up and walking towards Daisy in beat. He casts a glance back at Sousa before staring down Daisy. The fact he knew about Inhumans was not good- and if Daisy hadn't been worried about their situation before, such feelings were certainly starting to creep in now.

"He'd better hope he is."

Daisy rolls her eyes, annoyed and frustrated by Nathaniel and the situation. She stares down at the floor as "hope he is" begins to echo in her head.

Nathaniel chuckles, seeing that Daisy was beginning to lose her tough girl exterior with each passing minute. "See, uh, the family business, I dabbled, but um nothing really spoke to me," Nathaniel said, casually taking a few steps back. "Until I met you." The words were matched with a small shrug of the shoulders and an eerie grin that made both Daisy and Sousa uncomfortable.

Truth be told, Nathaniel's creepy predatory demeanor toward Daisy concerned him more than it likely even impacted Daisy. Sousa looked towards Daisy, checking her expression, trying to understand how worried he should be. Her face didn't reveal much, it was hard and showed some annoyance, but you could tell just slightly that Nathaniel was starting to worry her.

"I saw what you could do and Whoa," Nathaniel said, his facial expression showing something close to arousal. He let out a small chuckle of enjoyment.

"You haven't even seen the half of it."

"I really hope not," Nathaniel replies with a smile and lets out another eerie little laugh. "And a cool thing to say, by the way. Your whole vibe is just great."

Sousa noticed that Daisy was reacting surprisingly well under all this pressure and made a mental note to ask her how many times she had been in situations like this before- when they got out of this one of course. She was remaining calm and collected, even when he had lost his cool for a moment with Nathaniel. The kid had a way with pushing buttons and irking you, but it did not seem to be affecting Daisy all that much. The three stared at each other for a moment before Sousa spoke up, "So that's why you took us hostage, to find out-"

"Hostage would imply that I'm using you as collateral to get what I want when, in fact, everything I want is right here-" Sousa struggled to follow Nathaniel's train of thought, furrowing his brow trying to piece it together- "flowing through your veins."

Despite knowing what she was, clearly, Nathaniel was missing some key information. A simple blood draw wasn't going to get what he was after. "This isn't the super serum. This is genetics," Daisy says thinking he had no idea what he was talking about. Nathaniel brushes Daisy's comment off, quickly noting that "I'm rich. It, uh, cuts down some barriers."

Walking towards the exit of the room he adds, "Plus, Hydra families keep in touch-" swiveling back on his heels "-I mean, Dr. Reinhardt has some very helpful tips." Looking at his two goons knowing they would understand his reference, Nathaniel adds- "What's he always saying? Discovery requires experimentation."

Reinhardt- finally Sousa felt like he understood something, recognizing the name. Reinhardt had been a top Nazi officer working for Red Skull, but his connection to all this still alluded him. "Dr. Reinhardt? Didn't we catch him in the war?" he asked out loud, looking towards Daisy as she had always been the one to clarify the time stream for him in the last few days. The look on Daisy's face didn't thrill him at all, with an expression to something akin to 'oh fuck.'

"Yes, and thank you for your service, my generation just does not say it enough."

"You mean Daniel Whitehall."

There is a moment of silence between Nathaniel and Daisy, as they just stare at each other, but quickly Daisy's expression transforms into one of pure disgust and hatred. Reinhardt-Whitehall had dissected Jiaying and threw her out like garbage and arguably caused Trip's death. Whitehall was a monster, and the thought that Nathaniel was working out of his playbook made Daisy furious. Her brow furrows, her nose wrinkles, and she clenches her mouth shut. Daisy moves, chain rattling, trying to get closer to Nathaniel, only for him to quickly crouch down, staring her directly in the eyes. The anger radiating off of her disturbed and confused Sousa, unsure why the mention of the hydra scientist had changed her attitude from blasé to seething.

"I. Will. Crush. You." Daisy says through clenched teeth.

"Yes. Do it. Just one boneshaker, and it's over." Nathaniel prods, but when Daisy lifts her hand ready to quake him, nothing happens. "Show me what makes you so special."

She stares him down as she continues to will her powers to work, desperately pushing for something to happen despite finding the attempt utterly draining. Daisy purses her lips and breathes heavily, Nathaniel and Sousa looking on with consternation.

She lets out a deep and defeated sigh as her hand flops down. She breaths heavily as she averts her eyes away from Nathaniel and instead looks at Sousa.

He notices tears are forming in her eyes, which he is sure she is trying to hide. The disappointment on her face was easy to read, but there was something else there that Sousa could not quite pin-point. Was it fear or anger? Sousa himself was starting to feel both, but not for himself. Nathaniel was becoming more fixated on Daisy, and it was unnerving to think about what could happen next.

Unfortunately, he didn't have to wait long to find out.

"We start with her."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> On to chapter 2! This one is much shorter but its OG content so bare with me. Let me know if I should keep this up!

"No," Daisy says breathlessly as Nathaniel gets up and heads out the door.

As the two men move forward, Sousa musters all his strength and gets up off the floor, wavering a bit both because of the drugs and the lack of his cane. He wasn't going to let them take her without a fight.

"You aren't going to take her," he says forcefully, stepping in the way of the men, but they easily brush him off, making him stumble back and catch himself on the wall. As he steadies himself, one of the men crouches down and unlocks Daisy's feet shackles that were connected to the floor, while the other positions himself between him and Daisy, silently staring Sousa down, trying to deter him from trying anything else.

Daisy quickly contemplated her options, sizing up the two men before letting out a deep exhale realizing she probably wasn't going to be able to take them on handcuffed, drugged, and powerless-

but she could try.

As soon as her feet are free, she gives a strong kick to the man's face pushing him back onto his butt as he clutches his nose in pain. The other man whips around hearing the tussle, giving Sousa an opening to slip his arms over the man in an attempt choke him, but since his hands were cuffed Sousa couldn't get the proper position and instead received a hard elbow to the face. He crumples to the floor, disoriented, the room spinning again like it had when he had just woken up.

Daisy had tried to get up quickly after her sudden kick, but she only had managed to get onto her hands and knees before the guy in the grey suit who had just nailed Sousa plowed his foot into her stomach. Daisy loses her positioning and falls back down, the hay uncomfortably sticking to her cheek. She connects eyes with Sousa whose eyebrows were raised, but eyes squinted as he tried to focus on her amidst a swirling room.

He lets out a barely audible "Johnson," so breathlessly that Daisy is not sure if she actually heard it or just read his lips.

She stays like that for a moment, just looking at his face, too exhausted to try to get up.

The grey suit goon checks in with his partner who was more peeved then anything that Daisy had got the jump on him.

"You good?" he asks, receiving a stoic nod back as confirmation.

The men reach down and grab Daisy by the arms, pulling her off the floor without much exertion. Her head lulls with the motion, her body relatively limp from exhaustion.

As they pull her up, flashes of all her training sessions with May flood her mind. This is the fatigue threshold May would say- the moment when you physically feel like you can't keep fighting but have to. Mind. Over. Matter. She was an agent before she had powers and she couldn't forget that. There had to still be some fight in her.

With another deep breath in, she began to struggle against the two men's grip, twisting her torso, throwing her elbows, and kicking her feet, but none of it mattered.

"No. Stop it. Get off of me!"

Daisy even tried to make herself dead weight- pushing her body closer to the floor but that it just made Nathaniel's guys more annoyed.

"Oh just stop fighting-" one of the goons says, yanking at Daisy, pulling her closer to the door.

"You fucking assholes," she spat using all her strength to rip away from their grips. She quickly was beginning to realize that if she didn't fight now, and stop this all, she was going to be cut to bits just like her mother. An extremely terrifying thought, especially since she had not been gifted with her mother's healing abilities.

"Sousa!" Daisy lets out, throwing her head over her shoulder to see where he was- she needed help.

Hearing Agent Johnson call out his name was like a battle cry, clearing some of the disorientation he had been fighting against.

Sousa made a lunge for one of the men's legs, holding them still as Daisy thrashed about. He heard Daisy let out a deeply angry groan, almost a scream, as her movements stopped for a second.

She focuses on the room and all the vibrations around her once again, trying frantically to active her powers. She squeezed her eyes shut and put all her strength into it as if she was trying to lift something five times her body weight. She could feel the hum of everything around her but couldn't do anything about it. It was like everything was a body part that fell asleep- tingling and buzzing but no way of moving.

And then suddenly the room shook, but just ever so slightly, and then it was gone.

The rattle surprised everyone, causing a momentary pause in all the struggle, but it really just had delayed the inevitable for a moment.

"Stop playing around and get her in here!" Nathaniel yelled from the outside the doorway. Whatever he was planning to do he was ready and not messing around.

"Coming sir!"

The small little quake had been everything she had in her, and it barely was anything. Daisy let out a heavy breath, letting her head fall to her chest. This was it.

Nathaniel's goon kicked Sousa away, breaking free of his grip, and Daisy was dragged closer to the threshold of the room. Panicking as they hauled her away, Sousa tried to follow them out, tripping slightly after putting his weight on his bad leg, and then was yanked back by the chain of shackles when he steadied himself. He couldn't reach the door even if he tried. He looks back at the chain and tugs at it moving his foot, hoping it wasn't as restricting as it appeared to be, but it was solid.

"Dammit."

He watches the wood door shut, rakes his hand through his hair, and slides back down the wall to the floor.


End file.
